Steel Magnolias #14

It is a beautiful day with the sun shining and the temp in the high 70ís. It is a great day for the museums Pioneer Day festivities. It is a day where the grade school classes descend on the place and get a grand tour with some of the workers dressed in pioneer clothing. Will demonstrates how to build a saddle and other leather items. He has some hands on things where the kids that want to, can make a design on a piece of leather. I think it lasts from 9am till 3pm. Today I am going to smoke those ribs I have thawed out for dinner and serve some fruit and veggies with them. It is such a beautiful day without the ever present wind blowing. I got a surprise last evening when Will got back from the T party meeting (which I didnít attend) and handed me $50. Remember all those tickets and handouts I made for the group awhile back ~ well the powers that be decided they would pay me some for the materials I had used. How sweet of them for I had volunteered to do the work and hadnít ask for anything for doing it. Nice surprise.

JEAN Thank you for that information on Aloe Vera. I found a place on line that carries Fruit of the Earth products and a list of stores that handle it so now I can get some of it. This with the menthol in it works great but I just donít like the odor. I prefer that it has no smell at all. BTW my Aloe Vera plant has sprouted out some new babies.

DONNA FAYE I would love to see those pictures of the things you will have on your cabin door. What fun you will have on your cruise. I know how old linoleum can attract dirt like a magnet for we have had that in some places we lived. We always ended up replacing the flooring in some of the places. I am so glad we replaced the carpet in this room with that wood look laminate flooring. If we were going to be hear longer we would eventually replace the front room carpet with it also. Professors is a locial place that has an excellent chef so it is always quite busy.

Have a great day Magnolias. Type at y'all later.

__________________DON'T EXCHANGE WHAT YOU WANT MOST
FOR WHAT YOU WANT AT THE MOMENTDOWN THE ROAD TO THINSUCCESS OCCURS WHEN OPPORTUNITY MEETS PREPARATION

Ok, here is a pic of the sock for my girlfriend. I have both of them done and blocked, but it gave me a better pic to just do the one. They are a bit unusual so I hope she likes them. They would go great with jeans in the winter I think.

Jean: Well yes and no about the needles. One pair cools while the another is hot and going! What you are really asking is do I ever just lay all knitting aside. Not very often, frankly. I knit while I watch tv a lot and I always have gifts to be knitting and getting done so I just switch from one product to another. I have 1 1/2 pairs of the mittens to get done before the end of June, a pair of socks to get done before my dil's birthday in July, two pairs of socks to have done before we sail on the cruise for Jack and finish the wrap for me and the sleeves on the sweater and sew it together before the cruise in Sept. I am going to buy and take with me enough for 4 prs of socks, one for my son, one for my dd and then the boys for Christmas. So I always have lots of knitting to do I don't like knitting the mittens only because the yarn is 100% wool and it does scratch and can make my hands uncomfortable because it doesn't slide through my fingers easily. I seem to learn something with everything I knit, a better way to do something, a new technique, something. I taught myself to single crochet and if I ever get the time, might go further with crocheting and see how I like it, but until the end of the year, I don't have time for that.

Maggie: I am just trying to hang on until we have a wad of cash where we can just go ahead and do all the remodel work at once, which is a few years down the road yet. I detest this horrible linoleum and it is pulling away from walls and cabinets as the "glue" has let loose, but I don't want to do part of the floors then not be able to get the rest of the flooring in the same type and color when we are ready to do the carpeted areas. We talked about just buying all the flooring and waiting to have it all installed, but we have no where to store it. Our garage leaks horribly and the HOA won't repair the garages and re cement them to make them water proof so we can't put the flooring in there. I am leaning towards cork or bamboo flooring. I like the look of it, it is pretty durable too and though I am not a big environmentalist, this type of flooring doesn't deplete anything so it is a "green" product.

I see it is close to 1 PM and I have a couple chores to finish so better get to them. Talk to you later. Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! It's a sunny breezy morning in my neighborhood today. I've been to get my nails done and have a load of Bob's grubby jeans and t-shirts in the washer. I'm going to clean out a kitchen cupboard, make my gift shop visit around 2, and head to Sioux City for the mall to shop for a birthday gift and then soccer games.

Maggie -- Pioneer Day sounds like a fun time for the kids. There used to be something similar here where the kids went to a county park out in the country. There were several "stations" to visit, and the one the kids enjoyed the most was a real teepee and a guy who did alot of animal trapping. He wore a Davy Crockett type hat and dressed in authentic clothes; he had tools and items from the pioneer days that the kids could touch and ask questions about. There is a bar, we drive by on the interstate, in Sioux Falls called The Library; I always when Susan mentions eating at Happy Belly. Fun names for sure!

"Gma" -- What I meant was do you have to keep checking your pattern as you knit, or do you know them by heart once you get started? I would love to watch you knit! I like the sock colors and hope your friend appreciates the work you put in her gift! You have a lot of projects to keep you busy.

I'm off to start on my cupboard! Enjoy a terrific Thursday and be glad!

It is a beautiful day here in the ♥-Land with the high 80ís expected this day and all is quiet in the neighborhood. Will has gone now to the museum and said as a parting shot that he would like to go to Applebeeís tonight so that means I donít have to cook this day. I like going there because they have several WW entrees from which to choose that help me stay OP. For lunch today I will have a frozen dinner for I have several points+ friendly ones in the freezer. I do add spices to most of them because they tend to be on the bland side for folks who donít like many spices. Those of us that do can add them. I have been delighted that Cecilís food dish hasnít been knocked to the floor since I put a doily of non skid on his little food table. We have several graduation gifts to give this year for high school, college, and one with his Masters Degree. I think we will give them some do re me and let them use it however they choose. Cash is King so they say. I have nothing unusual to do this day so will do my routine that I have set up that works for me. For some reason this has been a very ďhungryĒ last few days for me. I have had to fight to stay OP but I do write what I bite for that is a ďhave toĒ for me. I will sure be happy when my new clothes arrive for I need some new duds. They have been shipped so it wonít be long now. I am really looking forward to when I have lost all I plan to and go shopping for new clothes. That will be fun.

JEAN What color did you have your nails done with. I am toying with doing the tips of my white for they are quite long and before I cut them I think I'll do that. Cupboards can have some surprises hiding back in the back and in corners can't they. I need to get into my baking cupboard and see just what is lurking back there. Your plans for the day sound like they will keep you busy and movng about. Have fun. Oh the pioneer day was so fun. Lots of the kids rememberd Will from last year when they visited and one little girl asked him to tell them a joke. He makes up the cutest little jokes for kids and they just love them and giggle. The kids were very interested in the displays and quite well behaved. Will wore his cowboy gear and looked the part.

Have a great day Magnolias. Type at y'all later.

__________________DON'T EXCHANGE WHAT YOU WANT MOST
FOR WHAT YOU WANT AT THE MOMENTDOWN THE ROAD TO THINSUCCESS OCCURS WHEN OPPORTUNITY MEETS PREPARATION

Good afternoon gals. I now have two pairs of mittens finished and have started on the last pair. I also knitted some on my dil's sock and I just love the colors. Really bright and happy!

Jean: Oh, well it depends. Like for the mittens, I always check the cast on number even though I know what it is, then I basically fit the pattern to knit. What I mean by that is like for the mittens it said to k2, p1 for 2.5 inches. Well, that amounts to 18 rows so I write that in the margin of the pattern that the cuff = 18 rows and from then on, I don't measure I just knit that many rows. The mittens and socks are similar in that they both have cuffs, then a section of leg or hand, etc. Since I have 4 mittens finished, I pretty much have that pattern memorized, but I never assume. If I have any hesitancy, I double check. Now, for the sweater, which has 8 rows that repeat, each odd row is pattern and even row is a straight purl row. So, I look at what row one pattern is, but then can repeat it without looking anymore and on and on. I have a book called Sensational Socks and I always use it to set up a new sock size. I have small yellow legal pads where I write the info in, do the same thing like I do for the mittens, ie, how many rows equal the number of inches for the cuff, leg, etc. The book gives me charts, men's women's and children's. I find the shoe size, which the chart then gives me the leg length, the heel flap, gusset, foot, toe and then foot/toe total in inches. It also has a chart where you take the number of stitches the needle size and yarn gives you from your gauge then tells you how many stitches to cast on. It is a terrific book. So my little legal pads so far has a couple children's sizes, a couple men's sizes, and a few ladies sizes. That way, if I need to knit a pattern size women's 7, I already have the information on my legal pad and I just follow that information. Now, the charts have narrow, medium and wide too so you have to consider that when you are using a pattern already written down, but most people are medium sized. Hopefully this all wasn't clear as mud. The short answer is sometimes!

Maggie: So far I only have one graduate, my best friend's granddaughter and I babysat her when she was a baby so I am just going to give her a gift card to Target. What girl doesn't like to go buy clothes, swimsuits and such.

I talked to my dil for about 45 minutes yesterday morning. They just got back from Disney World and they weren't impressed. She said for one thing Jackson was not tall enough for a majority of the rides, he hated the rides like Pirates of the Caribbean because of the dark and she said the prices for food is outrageous even buying groceries in Orlando. She said they wanted $8 for a hot dog and $3 for one of those tiny cartons of milk!!! She said she had to pay a fortune for some pineapple. She said they enjoyed the beach a lot more when they finished their vacation at the beach. She said Jackson really did a lot of work getting me a magnet from his vacation. Thomas has always gotten me a magnet from their travels since he was around 2 years old. I have them on my Fridge and my refrigerator is a true world traveler! So I got Jackson in on it now. I told her, it is a cheap gift and the boys seem to love picking just the perfect ones out.

Well girls, I need to unload the dishwasher and get back to knitting. Have a good day and the coming weekend. Kelly isn't going and canceled so no Marty this weekend. We still have commissary shopping this weekend though! UGH!!! Faye

Afternoon girls. I kept the car today so I could take Fortune to the groomers and get my stuff mailed to my girlfriend and the extra yarn from the mittens returned for a refund.

I thought maybe I finally had gotten past problems with these stupid hormones but man I have been sick all day. I took some Pepto to help with the diahrrea, but I finally had to take some pain meds too. I just hope they kick in before I have to go and get Jack at 2:15.

Wow, the gas prices have sure come down. I don't get out a lot so didn't know they had dropped so much. Hope it continues and hangs on for awhile so we have cheaper prices for our trip. That would be nice.

Have any of you used those 3M Command strip hanging things? I bought some tiny hooks today to use for the hanging things for the cruise cabin doors but I really need to know if they come off clean as they say they do. You can't use anything that will damage the door or whatever like tape, glue, etc, etc. Everything I did is magnetic, but I have these hanging whirly things that have just a little plastic loop to hang and so I bought some of those 3M things that say you can take them off of anything cleanly. If I get feedback from you guys or on the cruise boards that they don't work that well I guess I will just cut up some magnet pieces and glue to the back of the 3M set up and just hang them that way on the door.

I have about 15 rows to go on the hand part of the mitten then the thumb then one more mitten and I am done. I have also worked on my dil's sock just a bit and had to show you what the color is going to be like. Are these wild or what? She can walk around in the dark and be seen! Jack helped me last night roll the hank of his green socks into a roll. They are going to be some wild socks too. I don't know what he is going to wear them with. I told him he is going to have to buy a bright green shirt or something.

We have commissary weekend and that's about all for us this weekend. Next weekend is rug shampooing again. We never did get it all done so we have to get it done this next weekend. Actually it isn't we it is Jack. He thinks he does a better job so I gave up arguing with him. If I want to do it, I will during the week.

It is a bright sunshiney day here in the ♥-Land with temps in the 70’s. Oh joy ~ I got to go to get my hair cut at 1:30 this day which makes me happy for she did a great job as usual with my sparse locks. I bought a bottle of “scalp activating treatment” that is for fine chemically enhanced hair that is said that "9 out of 10 say they perceive a thickening effect." One is supposed to apply this after a shampoo and leave it on. It is a Nioxin product and I use their wash and rinse products already. Hope this works for me for it is rather spendy. I received the partial order of the clothing I had ordered and things fit fine. I will wait for the rest of the order so I can get the outfits together for I now just have partial pieces. I will be stilin’ for sure. :cp; I did my nails white tipped last night but I could see in the morning light that they needed another coat of polish so I got them all done now. I did them in dim light while watching TV last evening and they looked great then. They now look as if a professional had done them. I'm not bragging just stating the truth. Will went out riding the mower this day for it may rain tomorrow and the grass will benefit from the rain better if it is mowed. I got the results back from my mammogram so now I am set for another year before I have to undergo that again. I like this method of them being able to see the x-rays on their monitor and not have to have to wait for them to be developed these days so they can get the results so much quicker. We are going to have steaks on the bar-b-q this evening for dinner along with some salad and hard rolls.

DONNA FAYE You sure got those mittens done quickly. I love the colors in that picture you posted. I have never used those hanging clips but you may try one at home first as a trial run. On the inside of a closet or cupboard where it won't show if it leaves a residue. Sorry to hear you aren't feeling well. Hopefully this will pass quickly since you took some meds.

Have a great afternoon Magnolias. Type at y'all later.

__________________DON'T EXCHANGE WHAT YOU WANT MOST
FOR WHAT YOU WANT AT THE MOMENTDOWN THE ROAD TO THINSUCCESS OCCURS WHEN OPPORTUNITY MEETS PREPARATION

It is a chilly day here in the ♥-land in the 60’s and sunny though. We are going to go out to our favorite restaurant today for the mid day meal to celebrate Mothers day. The restaurants will be so full tomorrow we don’t want to fight the crowd. We can eat at home tomorrow or go to Sonic drive in. We have a graduation party to go to after services tomorrow night which will & should be fun. Not much happening out here this day. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend in store for you.

Have a great day Magnolias. Type at y'all later.

__________________DON'T EXCHANGE WHAT YOU WANT MOST
FOR WHAT YOU WANT AT THE MOMENTDOWN THE ROAD TO THINSUCCESS OCCURS WHEN OPPORTUNITY MEETS PREPARATION

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's a nice sunny day in my corner of the world. I've been doing laundry and made a grocery run. A friend was asked to bake cupcakes for the graduates' reception tomorrow, and since she is out of town for the weekend I offered to pick them up for her. I ended up working in the gift shop yesterday morning and closed out the books for the week when I left at noon. Now I need to get the bank deposit ready. We were invited to my "sister's" for supper last night to celebrate my "mom's" 86th birthday and Mother's Day. I don't think there is anything planned for tomorrow except church and gearing up for a busy week.

Maggie -- My nail polish is OPI Pink of Hearts, kind of a pale shimmery pearl shade of pink. Glad you got your mammogram results back and all is ok. I can look at last years pictures and compare to this year -- like I could really tell a difference, but the techs always offer to let me look.

"Gma" -- I hope you are feeling better today! I wondered about Jackson being tall enough for some of the rides. I would love to visit DW but think it would be much more fun if we could take the grandkids along. I've never tried the 3M hangers so can't give you an answer on that one. Alicia's socks are wild and I know she will love them!

I hear the dryer buzzing so better fold towels and get the next load going. Hope you all are enjoying a nice weekend.

Good afternoon girls. I am waiting for dinner to finish in the oven. I am having stuff bell peppers and Jack is having stuffed shells as he doesn't like bell peppers. I always make two but I will eat one and save one for lunch or something.

Jack is perusing the movies since tv stinks right now so who knows what we are going to be watching. We just watched "El Dorado" one of my favorite John Wayne movies which has James Caan. I like the twin of it too, which "Rio Bravo" with Rick Nelson in it. Caan and Nelso basically play the same part and the movies are almost identical. I don't know why they filmed two movies alike or almost alike but John Wayne did. He picked "Die Hard," ick, so I will read a book or knit. I have the last mitten halfway done so I want to finish it up so I can deliver all of them on Tuesday after I go to the doctor.

Jean: I almost always get white tips, but I am thinking about color for vacation as I am having a pedicure too, which I never do as it is expensive to do both. I am also going and having my eyebrows shaped, which I have never had done. My hair is driving me nuts but I want to let it grow out until right before vacation then get a new cut I think. One of the posters to the cruise thread said they worked terrific and left no residue or anything so I am glad of that. I did two loads of laundry myself this morning. I wanted to get chores like that done since we have grocery shopping tomorrow.

Maggie: I am going to order some of that Nioxin. I found an online beauty site that sells the stuff a lot cheaper. Maybe it will thicken up my hair some before vacation, which would be great. Glad the mammogram came out ok. I have mine in Sept or October. Probably Oct this year since we have vacation in Sept.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to you all!!! I had to get up and go to the bathroom and decided just to stay up this morning. I finished those darn mittens last night and I don't want to see another mitten pattern for a long long time. I am now working on Alicia's socks and will start on Jack's first pair too to see what the colors look like.

We aren't doing anything today as it is always so nutso at restaurants and such on MD so Kelly and Tom are taking us to Owen Brennan's next Sunday for brunch. Time to try out another of my cruise dresses. We have to go out to the commissary today and do the grocery shopping, which you know I always love.

Nothing else going on here. I have a surgeon's dr appt on Tuesday, but other than that nothing going on this week so I can work on the house and the knitting big time I guess.

Happy Mother's Day, ladies! A beautiful day today. I have all my windows open and Casper is wearing himself out going from one to the other.

We had a lot of fun at our tea yesterday. Shelly was very surprised since we celebrated her birthday which was on Friday. Tomorrow is applique bee at Bella and then Thursday I'll be going on my retreat until next Sunday so fun again.

Faye, I use the Command hooks all the time to hang quilts and pictures and never have a problem with them coming cleanly off the walls. When they are on sale, I buy an assortment to keep on hand. One tip, they recommend wiping the area the tape will be on with alcohol before sticking it up so you might try to get your surgeon to give you a couple of those alcohol packets they use to take with you. Love the socks! I can't get both a manicure and pedicure so I always go with the pedicure. With quilting, nail polish doesn't last long on my nails because I'm stabbing it with needles, etc. I had my eyebrows shaped once at a salon and it was a hair-raising experience. No more for me.

Jean, I hope you had a good time at your "sister's" last night.

Maggie, I sure wish my nails would grow long but they break easily and club when they get to any length (due to lung issues). I got some new nail polish from Avon that really dries in 30 seconds. No more sitting around waiting for it to dry. I'm sure you will look lovely in your new clothes.

Have a wonderful day.

__________________
Susan

HW 356 pounds - CW 135 - GW 137

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood -- sunny, bright blue sky, with just a slight breeze. Bob is working out in the yard edging the driveway and putting that dirt in some bare spots with hopes of growing grass. We went to early church which was baccalaureate for the seniors. There were 11 seniors on the program and 7 were present to receive huge bath towels with their names embroidered on them. The church gave 4 scholarships of $734.86 each. The pastor said the money was divided evenly down to the last penny.

"Gma" -- Stuffed peppers and shells both sound delicious! I'm sure you are glad to have the mittens done; I chuckled when you said you didn't want to see another mitten pattern for awhile. Hope your commissary trip was "short and sweet" today. Happy Mother's Day to you too!

Susan -- You posted while I was still typing and I didn't see you. It sounds like you have been having fun. Was the tea at your house? What do you serve when you have a tea? I know you will enjoy the retreat next weekend. I must admit I almost forgot about going to my "sister's" Friday night. I had my mind on the gift shop paperwork for the week and spaced off the rest of the day until I happened to look at the calendar to check for my church birthday cards. They live about an hour from us so we hustled; I'm just glad I didn't have to take food this time.

Bob is going to grill steaks later this afternoon. I'm sure the restaurants around town are busy today. Guess I will finish reading the Sunday paper. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Good morning ladies. I have my regular chores finished, but I want to shampoo the dining room rug today and Jack can do the living room on Saturday since the kids are taking us to brunch on Sunday.

I have almost finished the heel flap for my dil's first sock. These socks are something else. The color looks like all the colors of the sunset and I love them. I just hope she does. They are sure a lot more fun to knit. For one thing I can put them down and work on something else. It is always harder for me to knit stuff on a time crunch so to speak and I think it stresses me out. I knew I had plenty of time to do the mittens, but I had to get them done so I could do three pairs of socks, the rest of my sweater and my wrap all before either July or Sept. Knowing in my head that I knit fast enough to get it all done is different than just plain panicking about everything. I started Jack's green ones and boy oh boy it is going to look like he is wearing a frog! Kermit will have nothing on him.

Jack decided to just rent a tux and dress shoes on the ship. He has no black shoes and wants black dress shoes to wear. It will cost us around $100 total for both and that is for the whole length of the cruise, which isn't bad. That way we don't have to drag his two suits and all the stuff that goes with it.

Susan: Thanks for the info on the hooks. I had a couple people on the ship say they used them on the door with great results. Sounds like you had a fun time at the tea. I am sure your friend loved her "birthday party." I don't like getting pedicures because it is uncomfortable for me in the chair and holding up my leg. It kills me knee when there is only air underneath it so to speak while they are scrubbing and trimming, etc, etc, but I want my feet to look good since I am going to wear mostly open toed stuff. I have very thin but wide eyebrows and want to get them shaped and then play around with a bit of eyebrow pencil to at least be able to see them. They aren't blond anymore, but they are so thin in quality that the only thing you see is that they are wide so I want to skinny them up a bit. I have a age related indention between my brows which makes me look like I am frowning all the time so I will go through the misery of getting them done just once! Wish I could afford a trip to the dermatologist and get a little botox between the eyes to relax the skin there, but it is wayyyyy too expensive.

Jean: Hope you had a nice time with the kids yesterday. The shopping trip lasted around 45 minutes which isn't too bad! The peppers and shells were really good. They are fairly easy to do, it is more prep time than anything, ie chopping onion, cleaning peppers and cutting tops and bottoms off. etc. Jack took me out to Genghis Grill for dinner last night and boy did we see a sight. There was this black woman sitting slightly angled across the aisle from with with a group. First off, she was a fairly large woman, very masculine looking except she had on a long blond fall wig, a black dress cut out all over the place and short, short, she had gazillion pieces of huge crystal jewelry (no way it could have bee real as the ring along was the size of a hen's egg) and she was wearing sunglasses inside the whole time. Jack and I really thought she was a cross dresser as she smiled once and the whole bottom row of her teeth were solid gold. She got up to leave and it was a woman no doubt. The dress was lowcut and those were real boobs no doubt about it! Weirdest thing I have seen in a long time.

Well gotta hop to it and call the dr office and see if their schedule is up for June. Have a good one all. Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! It's a beautiful morning in my neighborhood -- sunny and NO wind. It took longer at church this morning as there was only two of us and we didn't balance the first time through. Come to find out the other gal misread a 2 for a 7 and there was the $50 mistake! I stopped to buy stamps and I'm happy they finally have some "pretty" ones, the library, the bank, and now I'm home until I have to do the end of the day money and paperwork in the gift shop.

"Gma" -- You have been busy this morning! I had to at you comparing Jack's socks to Kermit! It's really hard not to stare at "strange" people in public places. We saw several in the airports; I can't imagine going out in public looking like some of them do. I'm assuming they are looking for attention for some reason.

I need to check the fridge for lunch leftovers. Bob should be home soon. Enjoy a marvelous Monday and remember to think nice thoughts!